At the 1973 World Championships in Yugoslavia, Rick DeMont became the first swimmer in history to break the 4-minute barrier in the 400 meter freestyle.
He was 17, a student at Terra Linda High School near San Francisco.
“I could’ve gone anywhere,” he said last week. “My final two choices were USC and Washington.”
Over the next 44 years, he became much more than a hotshot swimmer whose gold medal performance at the 1972 Munich Olympics remains one of the biggest controversies in swimming history.
After transferring from Washington to Arizona in 1976, DeMont became, in my opinion, the most accomplished assistant coach in Pac-12 history, in any sport. For the last three years, he was Arizona’s head coach, trying to pick up the pieces after the departure of two-time NCAA championship coach Frank Busch.
It was the most difficult challenge of DeMont’s swimming career.
“It’s a mammoth job,” he said. “It was little about swimming and little about coaching.”
Arizona’s men’s and women’s swimming roster had 57 athletes this year. DeMont had a staff of five. By comparison, Rich Rodriguez has 85 football players and a staff of 28.
“It took a lot out of me, for sure,” said DeMont. “Sometimes I wouldn’t have a day off in a month. My wife (Carrie) and I have become ships that pass in the night. I just ran out of gas.”
So at 61, after several visits to the human resources department at McKale Center, after searching his competitive soul, DeMont chose to retire.
“It’s not like I don’t like to work,” he said, “but I’ve got so much more I want to do. My two youngest daughters are only 9 and 12, and I have grandkids.
“I’ve got the means to retire. This is the right time.”
It was a grand idea that DeMont — who coached so many Olympic medalists, from Ryk Neethling to Roland Schoeman and Darian Townsend, that it’s hard to keep track — could restore Arizona to the level of its remarkable 20-year run under Busch.
But three years of poor recruiting under Busch’s successor, Eric Hansen, put Arizona in an imposing deficit.
Rick and Carrie DeMont operate the DeMont Family Swim School in Northwest Tucson. Moreover, he is an artist with a national reputation; his landscape watercolors are on display in a dozen Western art galleries.
“I’ve got another passion besides swimming and I’ve got so many paintings in my mind,” said DeMont.
“I’m eager to get started on the next part of my life. I’m humbled; there have been tears.”
The next move is up to Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke as the UA attempts to return as one of the NCAA’s top five swimming schools. There is a surplus of capable replacements:
- Augie Busch, Frank’s son, has turned Virginia into a top-10 swimming school.
- His younger brother, Sam, who coached at Arizona and Auburn, is now the No. 2 coach at Virginia.
- Whitney Hite is head coach at Wisconsin and the former head coach at Washington. Hite was a Frank Busch assistant at the UA.
- Coley Stickles, a 14-time UA All-American, runs a power California swim club and is also the top assistant at Indiana.
- Sergio Lopez, a former Busch assistant who ran the powerful Bolles swim academy in Florida, is the No. 2 coach at national contender Auburn.
DeMont was paid $143,000 at Arizona. Augie Busch’s listed salary on the Virginia website is $118,000, although outside income likely pushes that total well past $200,000.
Either way, losing a coach of DeMont’s ability and reputation doesn’t have to mean that Arizona’s once-thriving swimming program is hopeless.
